Bob Dwyer, Australia’s World Cup winning coach in 1991, said current Wallaby captain George Gregan and fly-half Stephen Larkham should be among those dropped following the nail-biting 17-16 win against Ireland if the world champions are to retain the trophy they won for a second time four years ago.
”After what I saw last night, we cannot win the World Cup with the team we have now,” Dwyer told Australia’s Sunday Herald Sun newspaper.
”And if we don’t make some urgent changes we’ll simply be handing over the William Webb Ellis trophy. We’ve played two decent teams in the pool in Argentina and Ireland and both would have beaten us had they been able to kick their goals.
”And that simply isn’t good enough,” said Dwyer of an Australia team that now takes on a Scotland in next weekend’s quarter-final in Brisbane.
Dwyer called for radical changes including the axeing of scrum-half Gregan, who scored a drop goal against Ireland.
”George Gregan played much more behind the forward pack last night but he still takes a little skip and a backswing.
”I feel we would get much more precise ball to the five-eighth (fly-half) and outside backs if Chris Whitaker played. He should be there.
”And Matt Giteau should be playing outside him. We have much more threat in our attack when Giteau is in the field.”
Elsewhere in the backs Dwyer said that if Lote Tuqiri wasn’t a better bet than right wing Wendell Sailor ”I’m a very poor judge” and added that Morgan Turinui should be at inside centre instead of Elton Flatley.
Dwyer, also called for the return of Al Baxter to the front row in place of Ben Darwin, replacing lock David Giffin with Daniel Vickerman and saying a decision needed to be made on whether George Smith or David Lyons was the best third lineout option.
”All in all that’s a lot of changes but we made 14 against Namibia (who Australia thrashed by a record 142-0) and surely we can make six to play against Scotland.
”If we don’t then I believe we cannot win the World Cup,” insisted Dwyer who added that Australia could beat Scotland ”blindfolded”. – Sapa-AFP